Ariel Riding and Fixing 2023

[allan.walker]

B****r!
I recently sold a complete, unused Enfield disc front wheel, caliper, m/cylinder etc. Having sold my Bullet, I thought that I would have no use for it. Now I know better.....

[Steven.Carter]

B****r!
I recently sold a complete, unused Enfield disc front wheel, caliper, m/cylinder etc. Having sold my Bullet, I thought that I would have no use for it. Now I know better.....

Maybe I bought it

[Steven.Carter]

I've left for the Bevy rally. So far not too wet. Thought it was going to be worse than this.

[Steven.Carter]

Got up to the Cousane Gap, the short cut up to Cork from Bere Island fairly dry, but then the heavens opened up so I'm sheltering for a bit in Coppeen

[Julian Murphy]

That's a neat conversion.

I made cardboard patterns to start with

Hey, nothing wrong with cardboard engineering.

[Steven.Carter]

That's a neat conversion.

I made cardboard patterns to start with

Hey, nothing wrong with cardboard engineering.

Well, it gave me a rough idea.
Got up to Belfast dry, miracle

Shes called the Superfast Ferry. 10 minutes late leaving

[Steven.Carter]

Its time I finished writing up my journey.
I arrived into Cairnryan around 9 at night, luckily my Hotel kept open for me so finally got into my room by 11,,,.
Next morning after a good breakfast I set off in the dry, first to visit at friend in Kilmarnock then via another friend in Glasgow. My plan was to meet Rob in Stirling who had rode up from Basingstoke on his Triumph.
Our route up to Ballater was up via Glenshee. Spectacular route and still dry but the forecast was bad.

Just a few miles from Ballater I could see an Ariel up front. I'll ride up a bit closer and say hello I thought. He's riding a bit close to the car in front so I carefully got closer in case he overtook the car. Ahh, that wasn't going to happen. He's being towed. His poor Huntmaster had blown a hole in his crankcase.
The Bevy rally is held in an Hostel. It was an absolute perfect place, I had a room with 4 bunk beds and a communal area with a kitchen. We had breakfast rolls cooked for us each morning and a delicious scotch broth for our Saturday night evening meal. Lew brought his beer pouring machine. What more could we want.
Our Friday night grub was Fish and chips, perfect after the long ride and with the weather warnings for the the next day going from bad to ominous we were delighted to get there in the dry. It was good to see that the hanging baskets were are taken good care of. But being 7" of rain was forecast I did wonder why

]

We even got flood barriers put up in the entrance to the Hostel.

[Steven.Carter]

It was a wet Friday night which continued on in to a very Wet and cold Saturday. Not many volunteers for the ride out. Except for two. Tilly and Lyndsay. Our two gorgeous young girls. Well that was that. There had to be at least one guy going so I suited up. Whilst it was 25 degrees back home we had 6 degrees rain and sleet. We all got more then a bit wet. This is the best picture of the day I took, we was frightened to get my phone out in case it got washed away.
Did find this picture though .
Tilly will kill me.

[Steven.Carter]

Everyone getting ready to leave Ballater. We didn't know then what was in store for us.

Our Sunday ride home was going to be, well challenging. I'd found a place for us to stay Sunday night in Weatherby around 300 miles from Ballater. So set off at 9am. It went reasonably well till we got to Blairgowrie and our fill up. The guy in the petrol station said to us, your not going any further. All the roads out of town are shut!!!

We did try a few different routes out, but nothing, just kept being sent back. So giving up we found a Starbucks and considered our options. Then Rob suddenly got excited, he overheard someone saying we could head out east towards Dundee. This we did. It did get a bit hairy at times though with the road very badly flooded. According to Rob I was blowing bubbles from my exhaust.
Anyway we finally made it to Weatherby doing an extra 40 miles. We had a house to ourselves which turned out perfect with secure bike parking and only a short walk from the town.

[Steven.Carter]

Just the last day and a comparatively short 235 miles home. The sun was shining, what could go wrong now. Well something was waiting for me.
I had noticed that my oil leak situation had deteriorated judging by my boots. It seems to be coming from my barrel base gasket. Nothing too much to worry about except that one of the barrel to crankcase studs had disappeared. Hmm, so I tightened down the rest and was fairly confident that would get me home. I was wrong. Just 50 miles from home the vibration got awful and my forward momentum was gradually slowing down. I limped into Milton services near Abingdon. I'd lost even more studs. The vibration was the barrel jumping up and down.

That was that. I had to call for recovery, disappointing but didn't want to cause any more damage.

Now the AA van in the picture wasn't for me, another driver in his Peugeot van had a stuck starter motor. It was funny actually as I heard him laughing, he had rung the AA and his brother in law who works for the AA had answered the phone. What's the chances of that. Anyway they came out with a hammer but couldn't free the starter motor. The AA guy then rings to arrange recovery for him. My guy who'd just got my bike tied down says to the AA man,, why don't you bump start it?? Well they did and he was ooff.
So its a Karma sort of thing, although I needed recovery it helped prevent someone else's recovery